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Sonntag, Mai 14, 2006

Czesław Niemen-Enigmatic(1969)

Czesław Niemen(Feb 16 1939- Jan 17 2004)

Czeslaw Niemen.What can I say,his contribution to polish music is more than fundamental.I wouldn't go so far if I said he was the one who redefined it.He was born Czeslaw Juliusz Wydrzycki in the village fo Stare Wasiliszki,formerly Poland,nowadays Belarus.He was only six month old when WW II broke out.Like millions of Poles he was forced to leave his birth place and move to Western Poland as a part of repatriation.Move to Poland that made his home for the rest of his life.He made his debut in early 1960s(in fact 1958) singing a polish kind of rock'n'roll(in Poland labelled as Big Beat)and soul music.His song of 1967 "Dziwny jest ten swiat"/Strange Is This World became one of the most important songs of that era.He was one of the first Poles to wear long hair and colourfull ,introducing psychedelia style to communist Poland.The first theree records he recorded with his band "Akwarele"/Water-colours,later he recorded with his new bands"Enigmatic","Niemen group"and "Aerolit".In 1969 he decided to change his musical style to progresssive rock,recording the monumental album "Enigmatic",and here our journey begins.I think this album is very important,so i decided to present it in three different languages,like three different keys.Avant-garde enough?

Belarus,Stare Wasiliszki/Poland,Warsaw/Warszawa 1969

Enigmatic opens with stunning monumental Hammond organs intro,accompanied by la chorus singin in latin.After that we hear Niemen crying with dramatic vocal opening line of"Bema pamieci zalobny- Rapsod",based on a poem by one of the most important and inventive polish poets Cyprial kamil Norwid.This song is definately a must for everyone who's interested in progressive rock.Let me only mention that it became a reference of polish classes in schools when talkin about Norwid's poetry."Jednego serca",the second piece on this album,based on a poem of another polish poet,Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer reveals a turn toward jazz,introducing memebers of Zbigniew Namyslowski's band like young Michal Urbaniak(known as collaborant on Miles Davis Tutu).Well,sing this song to a polish girl and I can garantee for effects.Third one "Kwiaty ojczyste" is also inspired by a poem.It comes from Tadeusz Kubiak's "Kwiaty Ojczyste",red by Niemen in polish newspaper during his Italy tournee.It reveals performers feelings about his Home country and makes a picture of polish countryside.Enigmatic ends up with another beautiful piece "Mow do mnie jeszcze with Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer's lyrics and powefull choruses performed byby the "Alibabki"group.I realise that it may sound patethic but this is a masterpiece.Truly masterpiece treated by polish fans to this days with kneel down attitude.At the end i would like to quote a review written by english fan,found on the net:"Had it been recorded in UK it would now be hailed as one of the defining albums in the history of progressive rock. A brilliant album and to any fan of this genre just as essential as "In the Court of the Crimson King" or "Close to the Edge".Hard to argue with that,I must say.

i always appreciate good music from poland, where they seem to have a lot of excellent musicians (maybe due to a ?formerly? better musical education system?).

I have a question to you all:i bought a vinyl of niemen in the 70ies here in germany. it was - as far as i remember - entitled "Mourner´s Rhapsody" and published through the CBS corporation. the lyrics on it were sung in english (e.g. "i search for love, i search for love, every day every night i search for love"...). somebody told me, at least one vinyl-side was kind of a musical concept dealing the theme "catholicism". i remember further that some highly acclaimed US-electric-jazz-fusion-instrumentalists played on that album (john abercrombie?), but also michael urbaniak. can anybody tell me more on that album, and evtually post this? since my younger days the tunes of that vinyl stayed in my head. can anybody tell me more about that gem? (and eventually post it?)

It's hard to say wheter polish musicians were better educated as others or not.We had some good acts back in 60/70s,mainly in jazz genre but the artists were confronted with harsh reality of those times with very little chance to break through.The best ones have succed,and iI think Niemen's one of examples.

According to your request,yes I do have Mourners Rhapsody re-issue which was recorded in 1974 during Niemen's USA stay and I'll post it here with some additional info:)

Hi,I am a Niemen fan since I have been to Gdansk in 1998. A (young) friend of mine just told me about this music her father was listinig to and buy it for me. Everything was here : the sound, the soul, THE voice. The only difficulty is to understand the lyrics because I speak only 50 words of polish. It's a pity because it seems to be as wonderfull as the music ! In fact it's a mix between Pink Floyd, Otis Reeding and Small Faces ?? Without the "Iron curtain" between communist Poland and the rest of the world, this artist could be as great as a lot British or American singers... it's a pity.He is still well respected in Poland even if young prefers Mika or Madonna ...CU

Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?